Sarah and I took the train from Takayama to Kyoto yesterday. We arrived mid-afternoon and took the grey weather as a cue to do our laundry and catch up on emails. We wrapped up our lazy day with another meal of delicious conveyer-belt sushi.
Though it still comes across as a bit of a gimmick to us, the sushi is actually really good!
We woke up early today to make sure we were able to reserve a rental bike - apparently they go quickly - so we could explore the city. Fortunately, we didn’t have any problems because it’s not quiite peak tourist season here. Equipped with our bikes for the day and a detailed map of the city, we set off for Arashiyama, which was an hour bike ride from downtown Kyoto but a nice place to walk around.
The ride was easy – mostly flat and along a bike path – though the scenery on the way left a little to be desired (mostly industrial riverbed mixed with run-down gardens), so we stopped at a few shrines along the way to mix things up.
At Matsuo Taisha Shrine there were a bunch of families there for an event – clearly one where their daughters were dressed up as mini-geishas.
We also saw a drum performance near one of the shrines; though it seemed a little impromptu to us, the drummers were very well rehearsed!
Once we arrived in Arashiyama, we were greeted with fantastic views of the fall foliage that we’d been expecting! (And a SWARM of tourists we were not expecting!)
Walking around Tenryuji Temple.
Beautiful display of autumn colors.
After grabbing a bite to eat we headed to the “Path of Bamboo” – basically a bamboo forest that you can walk through. It was an interesting but not our favorite sight in the area.
We saw these happy guys on the walk over to the “Path of Bamboo.”
Strolling through the bamboo.
Our next stop in Arashiyama was Monkey Park, which is basically exactly what it sounds like: a park filled with Japanese macaque monkeys. For city health-code (and probably many other reasons), the monkeys reside at the top of a very tall hill. It was a pretty strenuous walk to get up but once we were at the top we had excellent views of the city!
Overlooking Kyoto from Monkey Park.
A monkey family picking fleas off each other.
Sarah snapped this picture of a baby monkey!
Once we were done monkeying around (couldn’t resist) we rode our bikes back to town and got cleaned up for dinner. We were both ready for a change of pace cuisine-wise so we opted for Spanish tapas at Tato. The meats and cheeses were delicious and we left happy that we sought out something different tonight.
After dinner we walked over to Pontocho Alley, a scenic, narrow alley with many bars and restaurants. We grabbed a drink at Hello Dolly but weren’t that impressed so we opted to just stroll down the street for a bit before heading home. If you’re ever in Kyoto we definitely recommend a stop here!
Sarah paused to rest her legs for a minute – we’d already biked 15 miles at this point!
Pontocho Alley (though this picture doesn’t really do it justice).
Tomorrow we have another full day of exploring Kyoto – time to see more of the temples and shrines that the city is known for!